Stand In the Rain
by fdty
Summary: And in the aftermath of the battle, as the memories of her life pass her by, she will sing and be lifted once more.


Sakura stood her ground, facing the enemy before her with more courage than she had ever felt in her entire shinobi career.

Her body ached all over. There were bruises covering her paler-than-usual skin, cuts in any spot you looked at. There was also a deep gash in her upper left thigh and in her abdomen. She had been beaten senselessly: kicked, punched, thrown, stabbed, burned…

Ect.

Ect.

Ect.

The pain was unreal. Unlike anything she had ever felt.

But she stood her ground.

Because if she lost this one fight, this one fight out of hundreds, she would lose everything.

Again.

"I told you once, so I'll tell you one more time: give up, Haruno. I don't want to make this any harder than this needs to be."

Sakura could have laughed ten and there at that. How many times had she heard _that_ line before? She pulled out another kunai—her last one—and spun it in her hand before making a firm grasp on it. Her eyes glowed with determination.

"Say what you want, but I won't lose to you!" the Akatsuki member unsheathed his ultimate weapon, mixing it with his strongest and deadliest jutsu.

"Then you'll die here."

In his oddly shaped katana, there was a mixture of elements that Sakura never fathomed possible. The metal was being surrounded by lightning, fire, and wind. And at the same time, he was forming a tidal wave behind him of the toxic waters they were fighting near.

And then it all came towards her.

Minutes, hours, months, millennia later? Sakura couldn't tell anymore, but the battle was over. she wasn't dead, but she was going to be. The Akatsuki man was gone, leaving her there to die.

So much pain, on her body and in her body as well. There were more burns that before—

_So many burns_

—and the wind was so sharp, so filled with the powerful chakra—

_Dark, so dark_

—that it had ripped open her skin in some places.

And then there was the water.

The wave was so big, so very big… she was drowning in it, and she was sure that she had swallowed a lot of it.

Now it just felt like she was being eaten away from the inside, out.

You know how people say that when you die, you see your life flashing before our eyes? Well , Sakura now understood what that really meant.

For everyone, it could be different. But for Sakura, it went like this:

She was seeing everything she could have done different in her life. Like not fight with Ino so much, because in reality, they were a pretty good tag-team duo. She could have asked Tsunade sooner to train her in the medical field. She would have been able to learn more.

And then she was seeing all of the good things in her life. Like all the support she had received from villagers when she was becoming a medic. She had been so used to being backstage, but then she was suddenly the star of the show.

Then there were her friends.

Ino: Pig! So loud, so lovable, so…Ino. Sure, they had the quarrels, but they would always be best friends. Besides, it was partly her fault that Sakura had grown a backbone in the first place.

Kakashi: he was so much like a father to her. When her parents died in the war years ago, he was there to fill in the void they left open labeled PARENTAL GUIDENCE. Even now, at 19 years of age, he would still ruffle her hair like she was a child.

Naruto: her brother! She was an only child, but if she were to have had an older brother, she knew he would be just like her blonde friend. He loved her, and she loved him back. Nothing could change that. He was always her rock when she was going through depression. She was forever in his debt.

And then there was Sasuke.

Sasuke: what would she do without him? He had just returned to the village almost two years ago, after she and Naruto had knocked some sense into his head. The village was already accepting him back, and he was socializing (thanks to the guys). At first when he returned, he would pretty much stick with Naruto. Then one day he caught her out training in one of the fields, and challenged her. that one sparing match, she believed, had brought them closer. Now, they trained together every morning. Sometimes they would go out together. Heck, there was even a time where he kissed her (for a dare to prove he wasn't gay, but still, he could have picked any girl to kiss).

Why did she not realize how good she had everything?

It took her a moment to realize it had started to rain. That was just making the pain worse.

Then it started to rain harder, so hard it felt like bricks were being dropped all over Sakura from twenty meters above her.

Big, fat, sharp bricks that had something against her.

She remembered a time when her mother was still around, and she was little, that whenever Sakura was sad, she would sing a song to her. Would that work now?

"She never slows down . . . She doesn't know why but she knows that when she's . . . all alone . . . feels like it's all . . . coming down . . ."

_Naruto and Sasuke ran up to her, worried look on the blonde's face, Sasuke's expression neutral._

"_Sakura, are you alright?!" _

_Sakura got up, a bit disoriented from her one-on-one battle against the stronger Chuunin. The man had put the three in a tight hold, preventing them from moving. Sakura was able to escape. Her teammates had yelled at her to get away from the enemy, but she didn't listen. She wasn't going to leave them behind._

_During the entire battle, her body was screaming at her to give up. The man had thrown many taunts at her, telling her that she wasn't good enough and will never be good enough. She had brought out her ultimate jutsu, and had killed him. _

_The first person she ever killed._

_Smiling, she answered Naruto. _

"_It's fine . . . I'm fine!" she said with a cheery voice. When Sasuke and Naruto turned around, beginning to head back to their destination, Sakura shakily raised her hands. There was blood on them….of someone she _killed_. A man was never going to see the light of day again because of _her_. _

_She had to force herself to keep the tears in until she was in her own room at a hotel, where the friends couldn't see her break down._

Memories started coming back to her, one by one. Why did she have to kill the guy? He might have had a family! She shouldn't have done it…she should have let him live.

"She won't turn . . . around . . . the shadows are long . . . and she fears if she cries . . . that first tear . . . the tears will not stop . . . rain down . . ."

She could remember when her parents died from a disease in the village. It was hard, and they told her when they were in the hospital that they were going to die, and that she needed to be strong when they did.

She tried.

She tried so hard to be strong for them.

But the day she heard of their passing, something in her just snapped.

When Sasuke and Naruto had gone to her house to see if she was alright, she put on a sad smile and said she would be fine, that "time heals everything."

_Naruto had left, but Sasuke stayed and said,_

"_You can cry. It helps," and then also left._

_Sakura had held in it for a minute after he left, then dropped to her knees. She desperately tried to keep the unshed tears in, but they were begging to come out. Her eyes were burning with the urge to break down. No one was around to see her._

_She doubled over, letting it out._

_She couldn't stop crying for the next three days._

"So stand in the rain . . . stand your ground . . . stand up when it's all crashing down. You stand through the pain . . . you won't drown . . . and one day . . . what's lost . . . can be found . . . you stand in the rain . . ."

She's been running from death for so long.

She really needs to stop running

"She won't make a sound . . . alone in the fight . . . with herself . . . and the fears . . . whispering . . . if she stands . . . she'll fall down . . . "

_Sakura stood motionless, her eyes wide with terror. _

_She felt him move and walk up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. His lips went to her ear._

"_Stop fighting it, little cherry blossom, you know you want this…" Sakura shook her head._

"_N-no," she whispered. "You're wrong." His hands began slowly running up and down her arms, creating goose bumps. _

"_Am I? Come now, you know you want me, and if you don't do what I say," he placed a gun to her head, "you'll die here."_

Sakura shivered from the memory, causing more pain to spread throughout her body. She remembered everything he did to her that night, and there were times where she still felt tainted by his actions. It took her friends a while to get her back to normal after that.

How she wished she could see their smiling faces, one last time….

"She wants to be found . . . the only way . . . out is . . . through everything she's . . . running from . . . wants to give up . . . and lie down . . ."

There was so many times where she just wanted to throw it all away. Like the time she and Naruto had gone to the Sound Base to rescue Sasuke, and she ran into Orochimaru. She was going to kill her, and she was going to let it happen.

Because she thought that Sasuke was dead.

She shouldn't have listened to that creep. She should have known that Sasuke was still alive.

Now, now she knew that it was time to hang up the medical robe, pack up the weapons, and stop. She was going to die here, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"So stand in the rain . . . stand your ground . . . stand up when it's all crashing down. You stand through the pain . . . you won't drown . . . and one day . . . what's lost . . . can be found . . . you stand in the rain . . ."

Her body racked with rough coughs, sending even more pain than from when she shivered to go throughout her and beyond. She could slowly feel her heart slowing to its last beat.

Her eyes closed for the last time.

_Behind her lids, there was only darkness. She couldn't hear, couldn't see. Then there was a small light, growing larger with each passing second. _

_It was so bright, so beautiful, Sakura wondered if it was for her._

_But when she saw her mother walking towards her, she knew she was finally home._

_Sakura tried running towards her mother, but the woman put a hand up, indicating her to stop. She did. There was a small smile on her face, making her look even more radiant than she already did._

"_Mom . . ."_

"_Forgive me, Sakura, dear, but you can't come. Not yet." Sakura stared at her. "It isn't your time, sweetie. Now listen to me! I want you to turn around and listen to the song that they are singing to you, for you, and see the hope and love in their hearts," she said._

_That was when she heard the voices. There were only two, both male. The more she listened, the louder they became._

"_Go," her mother urged._

Sakura couldn't open her eyes—not yet, there was still too much pain.

Those voices, she _knew_ those voices—

Sasuke and Naruto.

"Stand in the rain, stand your ground. Stand up when it's all crashing down." She felt one of them lift her into their arms. Based on the smell, it was Sasuke. "You stand through the pain, you won't drown. And one day what's lost can be found, you stand in the rain,"

Their voices were so beautiful to her, and Sasuke's arms were so soft and warm. She felt someone new healing her wounds, and Naruto's strong hand holding hers.

And right there, she felt more peace than she ever had before in a long time.

The healing suddenly stopped, and she felt Sasuke moving, the group running.

"Will she be alright?" Naruto whispered.

"Yes. I'll continue healing her when we get to an inn," a female voice said. Shizune.

And for as long as she could make out before passing out, Sakura knew that she was in te arms of loved ones: one hoding on to her hand, the other shielding her form the unforgiving rain.

The ones that taught her to stand in the rain.


End file.
